Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar chaired a meeting of his top officials on Friday to review the situation stung by the spiralling crime graph in the state and the resulting criticism by the Opposition.

He asserted that law and order was the topmost priority of the state government and there should be no laxity in crime control.

The review meeting came at a time when a spate of murders, rapes, robberies, snatching and thefts has been hitting the state almost on a daily basis. It has led to a poor perception of the law and order situation in the eyes of the public and rising worry among the common people.

The brutal murder of Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) chief and former Bihar minister Mukesh Sahni’s father Jitan Sahni at his native place in Darbhanga district earlier this week acted as the trigger for the meeting.

“Law and order is the topmost priority of the government. There should be no irresponsibility in controlling crime. There should be no laxity in patrolling and night patrolling should be intensified. The senior officials should conduct sudden inspections to make night and foot patrol more effective,” Nitish said at the meeting.

Asking the police officials to work with full absorbedness in maintaining the law and order situation, Nitish asserted, “strict action will be taken against irresponsible police personnel”.

The chief minister also asked the police officers to expedite the investigation work and complete it on time so that speedy action could be taken against the culprits.

Bihar chief secretary Brajesh Mehrotra, director general of police R.S. Bhatti, Nitish’s principal secretaries — Deepak Kumar and S. Siddharth —, home department principal secretary Arvind Kumar Chaudhary and senior police officials were present at the meeting.

All divisional commissioners, district magistrates, range inspector generals, deputy inspector generals and superintendents of police joined the meeting digitally from their workplaces.

Directing the police officials to ensure good behaviour with the visitors to the police stations along with hearing their grievances, Nitish called for an increase in the number of police personnel in the state.